22 KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTQRY 



* If you admit then/ the freethinker here says, * that use- 

 ful arrangements and such as point to ends can be 

 derived from the most general and simple laws of nature, 

 and that we have no need of the special government of 

 a Supreme Wisdom, then you must in this see proofs by 

 which you are caught, on your own confession. All nature, 

 especially unorganized nature, is full of such proofs, which 

 enable us to know that matter, while determining itself 

 by the mechanism of its own forces, possesses a certain 

 Tightness in its effects, and that it satisfies without com- 

 pulsion the rules of harmony. And should any one well- 

 disposed to save the good cause of religion contest this 

 capability in the universal laws of nature, he would put 

 himself into embarrassment and by such a defence give 

 unbelief occasion to triumph.' 



But let us see how these reasons which, as used in the 

 hands of opponents, are dreaded as prejudicial, are rather 

 in themselves powerful weapons by which to combat them. 

 Matter determining itself according to its most general 

 laws by its natural procedure, or if any one will so call 

 it by a blind mechanism, brings forth appropriate effects 

 which appear to constitute the scheme of a Supreme Wis- 

 dom. Air, water, heat, when viewed as left to themselves, 

 produce winds and clouds, rains, rivers that water the 

 land, and all those useful consequences without which 

 nature could not but remain desolate, waste, and unfruit- 

 ful. But they bring forth these effects not by mere chance 

 or by accident, so that they might just as easily have 

 turned out harmful ; on the contrary, we see that they are 

 limited by their natural laws so as to act in no other 

 way than they do. What are we then to think of this 

 harmony? How would it be at all possible that things 



